Tortas de Harina de Trigo (Colombian Flour Fritters)
Flat fritters of wheat flour and aguapanela, dropped into a pan by the spoonful and fried in ten minutes. Four ingredients you already have, and the aguapanela is what makes them Colombian rather than a pancake.
Servings: 8
Calories: 86kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup aguapanela panela dissolved in water: see the notes
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons powdered milk
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- A pinch of salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- In a bowl, put the wheat flour, the egg, the baking soda, the sugar, the salt, the powdered milk and the aguapanela, and mix until everything is combined.
- You are aiming for a thick batter, so if it looks too runny, add a little more flour.
- Heat oil in a pan. Drop the batter in with a spoon: let it coat the spoon and slide it into the pan as small rounds, or make them bigger if you prefer.
- Fry for a few minutes until golden on both sides, then lift them out onto paper towels to drain.
- Serve them warm.
Notes
Aguapanela is panela, unrefined whole cane sugar, dissolved in water. It is drunk on its own all over Colombia and here it is the liquid the batter is made with, which is what gives these their colour and their molasses note. The recipe's own notes explain the variations: use aguapanela and skip the sugar for sweeter ones, or plain water with sugar to taste, or water and salt for savoury ones. Thick batter, not runny. The second step is the one that matters: it has to hold on a spoon long enough to be dropped in a round, and a thin batter spreads across the pan and fries into a lace. Flour goes in a spoonful at a time until it holds. These are fritters rather than cakes despite the name. Tortas in Spanish covers a much wider range than cake does in English, and what these actually are is small rounds of dough fried in a pan, closer to a drop scone than to anything baked.
Nutrition
Calories: 86kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 44mg | Potassium: 24mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 30IU | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg